Since over 70 percent of voters said "no" Tuesday to the downtown Fargo Cityscapes/Renaissance Center, the concept as presented to the city is dead. If it is to be revisited, it will have to be completely revised.
Sixty percent (needed for approval) is a high bar for any election. This issue was more controversial than most. Opponents waged a vigorous campaign that gained steam as the vote neared. That they were able to generate so much doubt about the project is a credit to their effectiveness, even if that effectiveness sometimes relied on manipulated data and misinformation.
On the other side, supporters of the project were unable to win even half the votes cast. That suggests this particular downtown proposal does not have sufficient support to be revisited.
So what happened?
Indeed, the center's volunteer committee made an early misstep from which it never recovered: The emphasis on hockey. No matter how they tried to say the building was to be a multi-purpose arena, the initial impression about hockey defined the project in the minds of many voters. More than a few times we heard the complaint that Fargoans were not thrilled by the prospect of extending the Fargodome sales tax for a hockey building. Once that false picture of the project was planted, it grew into opposition that was more than enough to prevent supporters from cracking even the 50 percent approval threshold.
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As we said early in the debate, Fargo is not a hockey town. Any downtown multi-purpose events center that makes hockey its centerpiece will fail, as it did in 2000 and again Tuesday.
It is true, of course, that other factors contributed to the Tuesday result. There is genuine and legitimate support for a performing arts building downtown. But the community has yet to see advocates for the arts get their act together and advance an idea - any idea - for such a project. They are quick to say there is a need, but they have done nothing significant to address it - except, of course, come out against a downtown project not to their liking. As the wise old farmer said: Tearing down a barn is easy; building a barn is work.
Finally, the vote turned in no small part on competing visions for the revitalization of downtown.
A lot of people like the gentrification of the district, which they believe fits well with historic preservation and refitting existing vintage buildings. They like the expanding mix of small high-end retailers, coffee shops, art galleries, tony bars and restaurants and expensive condos.
Others favor a more egalitarian downtown that has room for a family friendly sports venue, moderately priced apartments, low-end living opportunities for some of downtown's traditional residents, and a bar or two where the fare is beer and pork rinds rather than wine and goose liver pate.
The discussion will not end with this week's vote. Downtown has awakened from some four decades of neglect. It is evolving into a vibrant, attractive urban district where people want to live, work and play. The Tuesday vote strongly suggests most Fargoans like the changes they've seen thus far and are not interested in a mega-project that they believe would violate their vision of the new downtown.
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